Anchorage Daily News

Vicky Hahn says she was working on the North Slope when she got the call: A woman was dead on her deck. The body belonged to Mia Soltis, a 48-year-old dancer at the Crazy Horse who was last seen leaving her job early Saturday morning. A person going door-to-door discovered the body at the Jewel Lake home Sunday afternoon, according to police.

"I don't know if she was trying to get in or what was the deal," Hahn said. "I thought, God, what if she tried to get help and there was nobody home to help her?"

Hahn, who works as an administrator for Conoco Phillips, said she and her boyfriend, who also works on the Slope, are the only residents of the house, and that she didn't know Soltis. She flew down to check on her home after hearing about what had happened, she said.

Police on Monday remained mum on details of Soltis' death, including the cause and time, saying the state holiday - Seward's Day - had prevented an autopsy from taking place.

The death appears suspicious, however, and detectives were working the case as the fourth homicide of the year, police Lt. Paul Honeman said.

Soltis' family members knew little of the circumstances of her death and were still reeling from the shock.

"We only know what we've read in the paper, so we really don't know anything," said her brother, Jerry LaMoureaux Jr., reached by telephone in Everett, Wash. "We're just kind of in limbo until they do an autopsy."

What's known is that Soltis left the strip club after her shift at about 1 a.m. Saturday, said Jeannette Johnson, owner of the Crazy Horse. A doorman walked her out to a cab, which she got into alone, she said.

Soltis didn't surface again until more than a day later, though a man walking his dog in the Jewel Lake neighborhood spotted and picked up Soltis' purse Saturday morning, Honeman said.

On Sunday morning, Soltis' father reported his daughter missing. At about 1:40 p.m., police, responding to the call, found her body on the deck, which leads up to the front door, Honeman said.

At the home on the 6500 block of Thurman Drive on Monday afternoon, black fingerprinting dust clung to the exterior rails, the walls and the doors. Black lettering that appeared to mark evidence remained on the siding along the building, around a wrap-around deck from the front door to past a back entrance and down a set of stairs.

The front screen door had been removed by police as evidence, Hahn said, and a few smudges of what appeared to be blood remained at shin-level on the front door.

"It's kind of weird seeing your house in the news," Hahn said. "I enjoy watching the shows; I just don't like being on them."

LaMoureaux said he last heard from his sister last week, and she seemed to be doing fine. She didn't mention any problems that could have brought about her death, he said.

"Everything seemed fine. She was a happy person," he said. "I can't see her getting into this kind of trouble."

Soltis was heath-conscious and liked to rollerblade, especially with her daughters, he said. She was hoping to start a holistic health business, he said.

Soltis had been working at the Crazy Horse over the past few months to support her daughters, ages 14 and 5, Johnson said, adding that she was well-known and well-liked.

"She wasn't a regular dancer," she said. "We have dancers that make their living dancing and we have dancers that come out to buy their kids food. She mostly came in, worked and left. She wasn't one to go out with the other girls.

"Even if she was a rowdy cat, people would be upset, but she was a nice lady. No one should have to die like that."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

Don Hunter

Reporter | Anchorage Daily News

Direct: 907-257-4349 | Fax: 907-258-2157

DHunter@adn.com | 1001 Northway Drive | Anchorage, AK 99508

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